Juana Valdes, East West Still life II (From the series East to West in Reverse), 2014, Digital print, 23 × 33 in.
Nov. 5, 2016 – Jan. 8, 2017
Opening Reception: Friday, Nov. 4, 2016
Curated by William Cordova
The works selected by curator William Cordova represent four generations of South Florida artists whose practice is informed and rooted in the geography, community and multi-cultural diversity of the region. These are artists who have endured and evolved as South Florida has changed, and yet still transcend the boundaries of expectation.



“we should want … [our] relationship to space to evoke architecture as it is informed by the humanities, not architecture simply as a technical art.”
– LaVerne Wells-Bowie (From Art On My Mind: Visual Politics, by bell hooks)
The exhibition offers a glimpse into the prism of South Florida art through sculpture, painting, drawing, audio and film. The works are derived from many different parts of the region and utilize a variety of concepts and scale. Exhibiting artists include the late Purvis Young, the first real home-grown talent whose prolific and complex work gained international critical acclaim well before the 2000s; Karen Rifas, whose expansive site-specific ephemeral installations have been a trademark and influence on the ever-evolving local scene since the 1970s; Robert Thiele, the first Florida artist to be included in the prestigious Whitney Biennial (1975); Juana Valdes, whose work has been included in various biennials, including the Havana and SITE Santa Fe biennials, and yet locally goes unnoticed by major museums; and Onajide Shabaka, visual artist, anthropologist, botanist and writer, a cultural practitioner whose artistic depth and contributions remain unmatched. These are only a few of the many practitioners whose works will be highlighted in this survey of a southern Florida collective.



Events
Spanish Language Tour of transphysics: istwa, landscapes, paisajes led by Gean Moreno and Izel Vargas in collaboration with letraurbana.com
Sat., Nov. 12, 2 pm
“those who ain’t got it can’t show it, those who got it can’t hide it”
– Zora Neale Hurston
Panel Discussion with william cordova, Aramis O’Reilly , Karen Rifas, and Onajide Shabaka
Sat., Dec. 17, 2 pm
All events free with gallery admission; free for members.
Artists
Dona Altemus | Ena Marrero | David Rohn |
Kevin Arrow | Donald McKnight | Alexis Sanfield |
Warren Bailey | Robert Mcknight | Onajide Shabaka |
Pablo Cano | Gean Moreno | Barron Sherer |
Rosemarie Chiarlone | Arturo E. Mosquera | Noelle Theard |
Yanira Collado | Glexis Novoa | Robert Thiele |
Lou Anne Colodny | Aramis O’Reilly | Kristen Thiele |
Sharon Lee Hart | Charo Oquet | Rick Ulysse |
Babette Herschberger | Ernesto Oroza | Juana Valdes |
Peter Hosfeld | Jorge Pantoja | Izel Vargas |
Robert Huff | Kerry Phillips | Susan Weiss |
Michiko Kurisu | Carlos Prim | Purvis Young |
Rhea Leonard | Ralph Provisero | |
Laura Luna | Karen Rifas |
Funded in part by Visit Florida.